RDF Dublin Core Metadata Initiative

The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) has created some predefined properties for describing documents.

Dublin Core

RDF is metadata (data about data). RDF is used to describe information resources.

Dublin Core is a set of predefined properties for describing documents.

The first Dublin Core property was defined by the metadata working group in Dublin, Ohio in 1995, and is currently maintained by the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative.

Property Definition
Contributor An entity responsible for contributing to the content of the resource (such as an author).
Coverage The atmosphere or scope of the content of the resource
Creator An entity primarily responsible for creating the content of the resource.
Format The physical or digital manifestation of the resource.
Date The date of an event in the lifecycle of the resource.
Description A description of the content of the resource.
Identifier An explicit reference to a resource in a given context
Language The language used for the intellectual content of the resource.
Publisher An entity responsible for making the content of the resource available
Relation A reference to a related resource
Rights Information about rights retained within and above the resource
Source A reference to a resource as a source of the current resource.
Subject A subject of the resource content
Title A name given to the resource
Type The type or category of the resource content.

By browsing the table above, we can find that RDF is very suitable for representing Dublin Core information.

RDF Examples

The following example demonstrates the use of Dublin Core properties in an RDF document:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<rdf:RDF
xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
xmlns:dc= "http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
<rdf:Description rdf:about="http://www.codew3c.com">
  <dc:title>D-Lib Program</dc:title>
  <dc:description>CodeW3C.com - Free tutorial</dc:description>
  <dc:publisher>CodeW3C Data as</dc:publisher>
  <dc:date>2008-01-01</dc:date>
  <dc:type>Web Development</dc:type>
  <dc:format>text/html</dc:format>
  <dc:language>en</dc:language>
</rdf:Description>
</rdf:RDF>